The Portland City Council officially granted the "keys to the kingdom" of the
water and sewer bureaus to the nonprofit Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon on
Wednesday after deflecting some requests from the public to delay a vote.

Commissioner
Nick Fish touted the five-year deal with CUB as a key step toward transparency
and accountability at both the Water Bureau and Bureau of Environmental
Services.

The two bureaus
have faced considerable scrutiny in recent years about spending ratepayers'
money on projects such as downtown's public restrooms (the Portland Loos), the renovations of a building for the Rose Festival Foundation Headquarters, an expensive and high-tech
water demonstration house in outer Northeast Portland and other questionable
projects. The city is also embroiled in a lawsuit and faces two potential
ballot measures that would take control of the departments from the City
Council.

The
organization will have access to the bureaus' leaders, documents and other public
records, according to the five-year agreement. CUB will hire a full-time
consumer advocate as soon as possible to focus on Portland's utility bill. The
city won't contribute to CUB financially.

CUB will then offer recommendations to the City
Council on topics such as capital spending, project priorities, rates and
customer service issues.

Fish's co-sponsor, Commissioner Steve Novick, started his remarks by playing off another "cub." Legendary Chicago Cubs infielder Ernie Banks once said, "It's a beautiful day for a game, let's play two."

Chris Liddle,
the chairman of a Portland City Club committee currently studying spending at the
two bureaus, asked or a delay. Liddle's group is midway through a six-month analysis.

"If you're feeling reasonable, I'll
ask you for one week," he said. If commissioners were feeling
"compassionate," he added, they should delay the vote two weeks. Liddle said that would give the City Club committee just enough time to finish their report.

Fish and other city commissioners said they could
have it both ways.

They declined to delay the decision, but welcomed Liddle and his committee
members to return and present their study's findings at a later date.

"Let's
move forward," Fish said, while adding that City Council members are looking forward to hearing recommendations from the nonprofit, nonpartisan City Club.

North Portland resident Sharon Maxwell used Wednesday's vote to formally
announce her plans to run against Fish, who is up for reelection this year.

She said the effort to provide outside oversight of the bureaus is "a bit too late" and "falls short" of necessary reforms.

"We need to see the will of the democratic process," she said, calling the CUB deal hastily put together behind closed
doors.

Bob Jenks, CUB's executive director, said CUB
isn't trying to replace PURB, or the duties of the City Budget Office and Budget Advisory Committees. "We think our work and the activism we do
will benefit all those entities," he said.

He
also decried criticism that the reform would be mere "window-dressing."

"I
don't think we do window-dressing," Jenks said, mentioning the organization's
belief that it has saved utility ratepayers more than $5 billion over the
years.

Susan
Ackerman, chairwoman of the state's Public Utility Commission, told City Council that
CUB is a serious and credible organization. The PUC regulates utilities in
Oregon and frequently pays CUB to intervene on behalf of ratepayers.

Ackerman
said CUB always is straightforward and doesn't oppose issues simply to be
obstructionist.

"They will always tell you why," she said. "I
am very high on CUB as a consumer advocate. I think they will help
you."

Joe Walsh, a frequent citizen voice at City Council
meetings, questioned the timing of the announcement. Walsh said the council is
embracing CUB because doing so will bail them out ahead of a possible May ballot initiative to take control of the utilities away from City Council and give it to a separate board. "Why now?" Walsh asked.

Novick responded, "because Jenks walked into my office last March."

"This
organization cannot mandate anything, it can only recommend," Walsh said. "I
think you're just postponing stuff, you're going to get really good recommendations
and do nothing."

Walsh offered to take Novick and his colleagues "out for a drink," if the county responds to difficult recommendations from the CUB watchdogs.

Jenks said he expects the City Council to listen
to his group's recommendations, because CUB will have the ability to rally ratepayers through bill inserts, giving CUB "thousands of customers behind us."

When Portlanders are informed
and organized, they tend to get involved," he said.